Stars (TW - Crystalpine Stinger) already working on Firelands Heroic - Shannox World First Kill
A lot of guilds killed all the bosses of the Firelands raid in normal mode already but it seems that Stars (TW - Crystalpine Stinger) decided to take it one step further.

After clearing the encounters in normal mode, the entire raid changed faction to reset their raid ID and started working on heroic encounters shortly after, that kind of thing happened in the past and it's not really surprising to see it used again to grab first kills.

As I write these lines, Stars killed Shannox in Heroic Mode. It's not really my place to judge if something is against the rules or not and I will just keep tracking heroic first kills as they happen.



Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Eternal Embers and Seething Cinders Droprates
You’re assuming the drop chances for embers averages out to .5 per boss in 10’s and 2 per boss in 25’s, which it doesn’t. Whether you’re in 10’s or 25’s you’re going to see an equal drop average for Eternal Embers per player, and the same can be said for Seething Cinders. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

New Content - Differences between PvE and PvP Players
The answer to your question revolves around a common difference in how PvE players and PvP players approach the game. Generally speaking, PvE players want more quests, more dungeons and more raids to experience -- more and new content is king. On the other hand, while some PvP players do want new maps, many others would be happier if we perfected the Arena or BG maps that already exist - or even if we cut existing maps. After all, PvP players don’t graduate out of Arathi Basin or Dalaran sewers the same way PvE players graduate from dungeon to heroic, or raid tier to raid tier. We did make some improvements to the existing PvP maps, such as trying to return Ring of Valor to circulation and changing the way flags work in Eye of the Storm (for rated play).

We’d love to add a lot more maps than we currently do, but we need to do it in such a way that doesn’t make the PvP experience worse for players who are more interested in refining their PvP experience than in seeing new maps. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Patch 4.2 Hairstyles
We had a bunch of hairstyles we threw in for testing on the PTR and the majority of them did not pass the test. (quality, art direction, bugs, etc.) (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Patch 4.0 Raids now puggable
We specifically intend for the 4.0 raids to be puggable now that Firelands is out. Grabbing some tier 11 by way of Justice, quest rewards, plus across the board difficulty nerfs should really be enough to get them going.

The patch has only been out a day or so though. I think it'll probably take a little bit before people really get it into their heads that they should be pugging the previous tier because it's not too hard to be successful. It's just getting people used to the various encounters and mechanics.

Maybe people are waiting for the holiday weekend? If nothing else, leading one yourself is always an option. I think we'd agree that we need some better ways to get pug raids together considering we intend to follow the "New Raid is Hard, old Tier is Puggable" format from here on.

Still unsure what that means regarding the final raid (i.e. Deathwing). Do pugs not get to see him until the next expansion is released? (Not saying whether that's a good thing or not, but personally I enjoyed getting to Arthas on some of my alts without spending near as much time as I did on my main.)
In ICC we had a stacking raid buff over time which gradually made the content easier. Not saying we’ll do that exact thing again but the philosophy was around even then that everyone who wants to can eventually see the content, but it’s going to take very organized groups (which typically means raiding guilds) to see the encounters first.

So casuals will constantly be a tier behind for the rest of the life of this game? If that is what is actually coming out of your mouth I'll save myself the time and unsub now. What a piss poor vision for your game. There are normal and heroic versions of raids for a reason. That heroic difficulty was implemented so that the two segments of the population (casual and hardcore) would both have something to do. You are now bifurcating the raiding population AGAIN, by telling casuals that they have to run around in the left overs.
Trying to label all of our players as “casual puggers” vs.” hardcore raiders” is ridiculously simplistic. Among raiders there is an enormous diversity of players. There are those who will raid virtually every night when new content is out, to guilds that raid once a week (and even then will cancel raid nights fairly commonly). If you must try to label raiders, you’d be closer to the Blizzard model if you said normal mode is for organized raids, heroic mode is for more hardcore organized raids, and the previous tier of content (and Baradin Hold) is targeted for pick-up groups. Also consider that even within a raid zone we try to design easier bosses (usually near the front) and more challenging ones (usually at the end) which can help blur those lines and offer smoother transitions for each category.

Overall, we think you’ll have a better experience playing World of Warcraft if you play with friends, either existing or those you meet in game. WoW, while much more solo friendly than most older MMO games, is still intended as a multiplayer game. We provide features like Dungeon Finder for when playing with friends isn’t possible, and as we said above, we’d like to offer more features like that. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Tabards Tab
Are there any considerations for a tab for your tabards?
Yes!

[...] To clarify: he asked if we were considering it, and yes we are considering it. :) (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Keyring Removal
On a serious point though some people are upset about the removal of the key ring. While that seems like we're just taking it out to be bullies, it specifically frees up storage space we can then make into useful features. Not that it will specifically be used for 'tabard storage', but we are going to be using the space the removal of the key ring freed up. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Thrall and Aggra's "wedding"
Correct. Their pledging of their lives to one another was essentially their 'wedding', although I'm sure Orcs don't use such nomenclature to refer to these things. Maybe 'life bond' fits better. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Does Blizzard plan on adding the rest of the dungeons and raids to the Dungeon Journal?
Absolutely. With the time it takes to present a single boss in the Dungeon Journal we were only confident supplying Cataclysm content with the release of the feature in 4.2, but we are on a path to filling it out with all dungeons and raids in the entire game. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Steam Summer Sales
In a very, very, very unrelated sidenote, Steam Summer Sales are up. I don't usually news non-WoW stuff but ... well, I like Valve and I'm pretty sure a lot of people will be happy to hear the news. Also, don't forget that we have a Video Games Forum!
This article was originally published in forum thread: Stars Heroic Shannox World First Kill, Blue Posts started by Boubouille View original post
Comments 622 Comments
  1. mmoc3c59a3d181's Avatar
    Well wowprogress doesn't say that it was a valid kill so i think everyone can agree it was cheating and move on with our lives.
  1. mmoc3b4a01e7e2's Avatar
    It's Blizzard's fault, STARS was clever and used a bug that Blizzard created.
  1. Atylia's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Aterons View Post
    Well wowprogress doesn't say that it was a valid kill so i think everyone can agree it was cheating and move on with our lives.
    Yep, wowprogress = law, get real..
  1. mmoc0c9d2d4515's Avatar
    Well they exploited to get there, not to kill them. So kudos!
  1. godofslack's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Atylia View Post
    Yep, wowprogress = law, get real..
    But all the top guilds discrediting it. Yup. So gratz Stars on a world's first in a pool of one.
  1. Brett Skullcrack's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by jabbazor View Post
    It's Blizzard's fault, STARS was clever and used a bug that Blizzard created.
    Yes it's Blizzard's fault for not closing that obvious bug before, but that doesn't make it any more valid for Stars to exploit that bug. Stars used to be the "guys who do really well despite being at a big disadvantage", but now they're just "those guys who cheat". If I was in Stars I'd be pissed off that whoever made that decision disqualified me from the whole T12 race and I'd be looking for a new guild.
  1. Venteus's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Aterons View Post
    Well wowprogress doesn't say that it was a valid kill so i think everyone can agree it was cheating and move on with our lives.
    Wowprogress also ranks guilds that reached 13/13 first UNDER other 13/13 kills based on points earned for defeating halfus heroic first.

    Yeah, wowprogress has and will always be a joke. Grats Stars on world first. Nice try paragon.
  1. mmoc22c13808b6's Avatar
    Totally wankers i must say, takes out all the meaning of competition, as from now they are on my blacklist and will never count any kills from them.
  1. Karambo's Avatar
    Way to go Stars, now you lost like half of your Fanboys and send them straight into Nerdrage and transformed them into Paragon Fanboys. Just way to go. o.O
  1. Zdrasti's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by godofslack View Post
    But all the top guilds discrediting it. Yup. So gratz Stars on a world's first in a pool of one.
    What their competition thinks of them really doesn't matter. In the realm of public opinion what matters is the publics opinion. And while they managed to get this kill through what can probably be seen as unsportsmanlike conduct, much of the public doesn't really view this as a sport.

    As far as world first is concerned, they fought the actual fight and they didn't do anything underhanded in the encounter itself. And consequently, they killed the boss before anyone else in the world killed the boss. So to many, they have the world first.

    On a side note, many people say the US starting 2 days early is nothing and not a big deal. Well, if 2 days is nothing, surely 5 days can't be all that much either. This is after all one big reason to not respect any of this world first nonsense as its not a fair race to begin with.

    ---------- Post added 2011-07-01 at 01:13 AM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by Ultragrisen View Post
    Totally wankers i must say, takes out all the meaning of competition, as from now they are on my blacklist and will never count any kills from them.
    But they're on one of your lists! Means they're more important to you than you are to them =-)
  1. mmbooger's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Terashi View Post
    Wowprogress has a rule against faction change abusers (paying real money for ingame advantage is cheating, no matter what anyone says). So while it may be a "first kill" it really doesn't count.
    you jelly?
  1. imagine's Avatar
    Excuse me but how was this exploiting?

    Its called takeing advantage of a flawed system, there is a diffrence.
  1. morfy's Avatar
    honestly, jokes on them, they got locked out, got an early non important boss kill before everyone else. its amazing that people are complaining about the first boss, its not like its Rag, or Deathwing. who the fuck cares about one minor boss?
  1. WingsofLiberty's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Rukah View Post
    Can't be a new raiding tier without drama.
    this 10x.also i have never entered that instance as my account is frozen atm.still can't you kill the final three bosses then unlock hc mode then kill the first 3 on heroic??

    i have a deja-vu of someone saying something about this,but i'm not certain.

    Edit:yea I got it now ...sorry for confusion.it seems like they faction-changed.
  1. mmoc3ed7b36c0f's Avatar
    US reset before EU ... EU + US reset before TW........... TW reset before........?
  1. AvalonTLW's Avatar
    WHO FUCKING CARES? They PAYED to change faction, taht is NOT CHEATING. Jeezes, what a bunch of pricks some of you are. And, who the hell cares about the achievements anyway. If you want to feel speciall, try and do the boss's without addons and tactics gathered from people whom killed the boss before... Once again, what a bunch of pricks you guys are.
  1. Comrade1182's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by imagine View Post

    Its called takeing advantage of a flawed system, there is a diffrence.
    Should check the definition of exploit :P Exploit literally means taking advantage of something, usually in a bad way.
  1. Kragtik's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by trinzel View Post
    US reset before EU ... EU + US reset before TW........... TW reset before........?
    When you faction change, your Raid IDs reset.

    Meaning you could clear the whole firelands, faction change and you wouldn't be saved.. but you'd have the achievement from Rag and are able to unlock hardmodes..

    This was previously possible by transfering but they fixed it.. Have no clue why they still haven't fixed the FC exploit
  1. Nocturnes's Avatar
    I'm far from jealous but i believe they are on 3/7hc....if i heard correct
  1. mmoc28b40944be's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by trinzel View Post
    US reset before EU ... EU + US reset before TW........... TW reset before........?
    This. It really is unfair. Not saying i agree with the faction change tough.

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